The ever-increasing popularity of golf has led to the development of innumerable training devices that purport to improve playing proficiency. Playing golf proficiently requires a combination of skills including a controlled, powerful, swing for driving and a concentrated, accurate, stroke for putting. Training devices for improving putting skills have traditionally involved the use of a mat of carpet that simulates a green and a rimmed hole at a location on the mat that is sized and shaped to simulate an actual golf hole. By continually putting a golf ball across the mat, the player improves his or her skills, with the goal of directing the ball to the hole in a single shot every time.
It is well known that the repetition of a particular physical activity develops a player's motor skills. These motor skills become part of the player's permanent subconscious memory. In golf, a player attempts to train his or her muscles to automatically provide a given power and direction of stroke to propel a golf ball of a predetermined size and weight toward, and into, a hole having a slightly larger predetermined size. During the training process, the player relies upon vision to correctly align his or her movements with the center of the hole and receives kinesthetic feedback from the act of hitting the golf ball and watching it move toward the hole. Over time, the player improves his or her movements in response to visual and kinesthetic feedback until the ball is more-accurately directed toward, and into, the hole.
It has been contemplated that reducing the diameter of the hole can improve a player's skill by requiring the player to focus on a smaller target when shooting. Directing a ball into an undersized hole requires greater accuracy and control than required for a conventionally-sized hole. The prior art has employed various inserts that are overlaid onto a conventionally-sized hole in order to reduce the hole's diameter. One disadvantage of such inserts is that they invariably generate an uneven surface where the insert meets the original hole rim. Thus, part of the kinesthetic and visual feedback from putting into a normal hole is lost and, in fact, the border between the rim and insert may act as a deflector that prevents the ball from proceeding to the hole in a predictable and relatively-straight path.
It has been further contemplated that a golf ball having an increased diameter can be employed with a conventionally-sized hole. However, even if such a golf ball has the same general weight and feel as a conventional ball, its larger size disrupts the visual and kinesthetic feedback that the player experiences.
It is most-desirable to maintain a standard ball size and to provide a smaller rim diameter for the golf hole. Once a player has adapted to scoring effectively with a smaller hole, his or her concentration is enhanced, and accuracy is enhanced. When returning to a larger hole, the player generally experiences a substantial increase in scoring probability.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a method and apparatus for defining a golf hole, or other, similar, goal or hole in a playing surface, having a rim that is variable in diameter, without substantial disruption of the surrounding surface of the hole. The rim of the hole should be variable in diameter over a substantially continuous range of values. The surface should be largely similar to an authentic playing surface and the appearance of the rim should be, likewise, similar to that of a conventional rim. The mechanism that varies the rim diameter should be adaptable for use in a portable training device and/or should be mountable on a conventional golf green. The mechanism of the rim should lend itself to automated control in which a player can remotely operate the mechanism to change the rim diameter from a distance. The mechanism should be reliable and designed for long life under adverse conditions.